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&&Greet
This story, my dear young folks, \emp\seems to be false;
&&GestureLeft
but it really \emp\is true, for my grandfather, from whom I have it, used always,
when relating it, to say;
&&GestureUp
it \emp\must be true, my son, or else no one could tell it to you.
&&Blink
&&MovetoCenter
&&Explain
The story is as follows.
&&GestureUp
One sunday morning about harvest time
&&Explain
just as the buckwheat was in bloom
&&GestureLeft
the sun was shining brightly in heaven
&&LookUp
the east wind was blowing warmly over the stubble-fields
&&StartListening
the larks were singing in the air
&&LookRight
the bees buzzing among the buckwheat
&&GestureDown
the people in their sunday clothes were all going to church
&&Pleased
and all creatures were happy,
and the \emp\hedgehog was happy too.
\pau=1000\
&&Explain
The \emp\hedgehog, however, was standing by his door with his arms akimbo;
&&Blink
enjoying the morning breezes, and slowly trilling a little song to himself;
&&StartListening
which was neither \emp\better nor \emp\worse than the songs which hedgehogs are in the habit of singing on a \map="bless-ed"="blessed"\ sunday morning.
&&GestureDown
Whilst he was thus singing half aloud to himself;
&&Uncertain
it suddenly occurred to him that, while his wife was washing and drying the children;
&&Think
he might very well take a walk into the field,
and see how his turnips were getting on.
&&Explain
The turnips, in fact, were close beside his house,
&&Blink
and he and his family were accustomed to eat them,
&&Pleased
for which reason he looked upon them as his own.
&&Explain
No sooner said than done.
&&GestureRight
The hedgehog shut the house-door behind him,
&&SFXDoorshut.wav
and took the path to the field.
&&GestureLeft
He had not gone very far from home,
and was just turning round the sloe-bush which stands there outside the field,
to go up into the turnip-field,
&&RestPose
when he observed the hare, who had gone out on business of the same kind,
namely, to visit \emp\his cabbages.
&&GestureUp
When the hedgehog caught sight of the hare,
&&Greet
he bade him a friendly good morning.
&&Explain
But the hare,
who was in his own way a distinguished gentleman, and frightfully haughty,
did not return the hedgehog's greeting,
&&RestPose
but said to him, assuming at the same time a very contemptuous manner,
&&Uncertain
"How do \emp\you happen to be running about here in the field so early in the morning."
&&GestureLeft
"I am taking a walk", said the hedgehog.
&&Uncertain
" A \emp\walk?", said the hare, with a smile.
&&Explain
"It seems to me that you might use your legs for a better purpose."
&&GestureDown
This answer made the hedgehog furiously angry,
for he can bear \emp\anything but a reference to his legs,
just because they are crooked by nature.
&&Blink
So now the hedgehog said to the hare,
&&GestureLeft
"You seem to imagine that you can do more with your legs than I with mine!"
&&GestureRight
"That is just what I do think!", said the hare.
&&GestureLeft
"That can be put to the test", said the hedgehog.
" I wager that if we run a race, I will outstrip you."
&&GestureRight
" That is ridiculous! You with your short legs!" said the hare,
" but for my part I am willing, if you have such a monstrous fancy for it.
What shall we wager?"
&&GestureLeft
" A golden louis-d'or and a bottle of brandy", said the hedgehog.
&&GestureRight
"Done", said the hare. " Shake hands on it, and then we may as well begin at once."
&&GestureLeft
"Nay", said the hedgehog, "there is no such great hurry.
I am still fasting, I will go home first, and have a little breakfast.
In half-an-hour I will be back again at this place."
&&Explain
Hereupon the hedgehog departed, for the hare was quite satisfied with this.
On his way the hedgehog thought to himself,
&&Think
the hare relies on his long legs, but I will contrive to get the better of him.
He may be a great man, but he is a very silly fellow,
and he shall pay for what he has said.
&&RestPose
So when the hedgehog reached home, he said to his wife,
&&Explain
\emp\wife, dress yourself quickly,
&&GestureDown
you must go out to the field with me.
&&Confused
"What is going on?" asked his wife.
&&Explain
I have made a wager with the hare, for a gold louis-d'or and a bottle of brandy.
I am to run a race with him, and you must be present.
&&Uncertain
"Good heavens, husband!" the wife now cried, "are you not right in your mind,
have you completely lost your wits?"
" What can make you want to run a race with the hare? "
&&Alert
"Hold your tongue, woman", said the hedgehog, "that is \emp\my affair".
Don't begin to discuss things which are matters for men.
Be off, dress yourself, and come with me.
&&Decline
What could the hedgehog's wife do? She was forced to obey him, whether she liked it or not.
&&Alert
So when they had set out on their way together, the hedgehog said to his wife,
" now pay attention to what I am going to say."
&&Explain
"Look you, I will make the long field our race-course."
&&GestureLeft
"The hare shall run in one furrow,
&&GestureRight
and when the hare arrives at the end of the furrow on the other side of you, you must cry out to him,"
"I am \emp\here already."
&&RestPose
Then they reached the field, and the hedgehog showed his wife her place,
and then walked up the field.
When he reached the top, the hare was already there.
&&GestureRight
" Shall we start", said the hare.
&&GestureLeft
"Certainly!" said the hedgehog.
&&Explain
Then both at once. So saying, each placed himself in his own furrow.
The hare counted, once, twice, thrice, and \emp\away,
and went off like a whirlwind down the field.
&&GestureDown
The hedgehog, however, only ran about three paces,
and then he crouched down in the furrow, and stayed quietly where he was.
&&GestureLeft
When the hare therefore arrived at full speed at the lower end of the field,
&&Acknowledge
the hedgehog's wife met him with the cry, "I am \emp\here already!".
&&Surprised
The hare was shocked and wondered, not a little,
&&Explain
he thought no other than that it was the hedgehog himself who was calling to him,
for the hedgehog's wife looked just like her husband.
&&Think
The hare, however, thought to himself, that has not been done fairly,
and cried, "it must be run again, let us have it again."
&&Explain
And once more he went off like the wind in a storm, so that he seemed to fly.
But the hedgehog's wife stayed quietly in her place
&&GestureRight
So when the hare reached the top of the field,
&&Acknowledge
the hedgehog himself cried out to him, "I am \emp\here already!".
&&Explain
The hare, however, quite beside himself with anger, cried,
&&Uncertain
" it must be run \emp\again, we must have it again."
&&Pleased
"All right" answered the hedgehog, for \emp\my part we'll run as often as you choose.
&&Explain
So the hare ran seventy-three times more,
and the hedgehog always held out against him,
and every time the hare reached either the top or the bottom, either the hedgehog, or his wife said,
"I am \emp\here already!"
&&Sad
At the seventy-fourth time, however, the hare could no longer reach the end.
In the middle of the field he fell to the ground, blood streamed out of his mouth,
and he lay dead on the spot.
&&GestureDown
But the hedgehog took the louis-d'or which he had won, and the bottle of brandy,
called his wife out of the furrow, and both went home together in great delight,
and if they are not dead, they are living there still.
&&Explain
This is how it happened that the hedgehog made the hare run races with him,
on the heath of buxtehude till he died,
&&GestureDown
and since that time no hare has ever had any fancy for running races with a buxtehude hedgehog.
&&DoMagic2
The moral of this story is,
&&Explain
firstly, that no one, however great he may be,
should permit himself to jest at any one beneath him,
even if he be only a hedgehog.
&&GestureDown
And, secondly,
&&Explain
it teaches, that when a man marries, he should take a wife in his own position,
who looks just as he himself looks.
&&Congratulate
So who-so-ever is a hedgehog let him see to it that his wife is a hedgehog also,
and so forth.
&&Pleased
&&Hide